Highway patrol seeks information in Lake of the Ozarks rape investigation

MORGAN COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Missouri State Highway Patrol is seeking more information about a man and woman from Kansas charged last month with giving a woman drugs and raping her at the Lake of the Ozarks.

The patrol's Division of Drug and Crime Control is seeking information about Carl Mort, 41, and Cassandra Wedeking, 39, of Overland Park, Kansas. The two were charged last month with rape, sodomy, drug possession and other crimes.

According to a probable cause statement, a woman told investigators that Mort and Wedeking met at a bar on the lake in July. The couple took her to another location, offered her cocaine and raped her on a boat that was docked, the statement says. Mort and Wedeking told investigators the sex was consensual.

The two denied having drugs but investigators say they found cocaine and ecstasy during a search.

The victim said the two introduced themselves as brother and sister but both of them took part in the rape, according to the documents.

The patrol said in a news release that the arrests and charges "were the result of an ongoing investigation encompassing the entire Lake of the Ozarks region, including Camden, Miller and Morgan counties."

Patrol investigators are seeking information about sexual assaults in the lake area over the past five years.

"Both a male and a female suspect may have befriended the victim(s), provided alcohol/drugs before or after taking them to a boat, and then sexually assaulted them," the patrol said in the release.

Lawyers for Mort and Wedeking were not immediately available for comment Thursday.